Engl Powerball Mk II head
108 Guitarist August 2010
£1,599
Guitar amps
balance control, and a threshold
control for the Powerball’s
built-in noise-gate, which
operates on the lead channels.
There’s also a series of
connectors for Engl’s
footswitches: you can use up to
three of the two-button Z4
pedals or the Custom Z-9,
which runs using Engl’s
proprietary SAC (Serial Amp
Control) protocol and offers
toys such as assignable buttons.
Overall, the Powerball’s vibe
is that of a serious professional
tool designed to operate on big
stages and deliver huge volume.
Sounds
The Engl doesn’t need those red
LEDs behind the valves to
deliver red-hot tone: it’s
instantly apparent this new
Powerball is deadly serious in
the sound department.
The clean channel benefits
from the 6L6 choice, with sweet
Fender-inspired highs, fat lows
and a warm mid-range that
manages to add punch without
being intrusive. The gain
control for this channel has
been carefully engineered to
stay pristine and sparkly up to
around halfway, beyond which
you can add a little extra grit
and definition that’s great for
blues or power ballad chording.
Flip into crunch mode and the
gain levels get a considerable
boost, which you can make
more or less aggressive using
the dedicated treble control.
This versatile mode is one of the
amp’s best assets, it’s just as
easy to generate classic ZZ Top
and AC/DC as it is to do more
modern stuff.
The two lead channels are
superb, Lead 3 provides wide
dynamic range while Lead 4 is a
little more compressed, perfect
for singing ballad solo stuff.
Both Lead channels have a
powerful mid-range that’s been
carefully sculpted to leave just
the right amount of bite and
edge, while the cool thing about
the boosted mid function is that
it operates on a different
frequency centre to the regular
mid-range control, making it
easy to precisely tailor this all-
important part of the guitar’s
tone. The Powerball’s lead gain
and distortion range is truly
epic, making it easy for the
single-coils of our reg ular test
Strat to deliver some
monstrously fat lead tones with
harmonic squeals exploding off
the strings on demand.
The downside of using single-
coil pickups in front of so much
gain is the amount of hum they
can feed into the input jack,
making the Powerball’s built-in
noise-gate more of a necessity
than a luxury. It’s simple to use
and works fine, although we’d
be happier if the gate closed a
little more gradually.
Overall, this new Powerball is
highly impressive: an amp
that’s packed with features yet
quick and simple to dial in – it
doesn’t take very long at all to
get some cracking sounds, with
tone controls that work
smoothly and predictably.
Verdict
If you’re into rock or metal
then the Powerball offers
serious clout at a price we
think is very competitive. It
may not have all the bells and
whistles that some of the
competition offers, but it’s got
more than enough features to
handle most needs while
remaining fairly intuitive and
easy to operate.
The Powerball’s sounds are
definitely up in the big league
and will easily give many amps
in the £2-3k bracket a serious
run for their money, so we
think that the new and
improved Mark II version is
very good value, even if you
have to buy a foot controller
separately. And now with new
distribution in the UK, it’s
highly likely we’ll be seeing –
and hearing – a lot more from
Engl in the near future.
Engl Powerball
Mk II head
£1,599 (head only)
Germany
All-valve four-voice head with
solid-state rectification
100 watts RMS
5 x ECC83/12AX7 preamp,
4 x 6L6 power amp
270 (h) x 710 (w)
x 270mm (d)
20/44
18mm ply
Four
Clean/crunch channel:
gain/volume x 2, bass, mid, clean
treble, crunch treble, bottom/bright
switches. Lead 3 & 4 channels: gain/
volume x 2, bass, mid, boosted mid,
treble. Bottom switch x 2. Master
presence, depth punch, master
volume x 2
You can use up to
three two-button Z-4 footswitches
(£89 each) to control various
functions, or control everything with
a Z-9 foot controller (£210)
Mid-range
boost on lead channels, parallel
effects loop with mix control, noise-
gate, valve monitoring/protection
system
None
The
recommended cabinets are the
E412VSB Pro Slanted Cab (£1,020) or
the E412SSB Standard Slanted Cab
(£691)
Test results
The Bottom Line
We like: World-class tones,
excellent build quality, easy
to use and all at a very
competitive price
We dislike: Styling might
seem dated compared with
the main competition
Guitarist says: A great head
from Engl that’s well-priced
and guaranteed to excite
The red LEDs give the Powerball’s engine room a firey glow
GIT331.rev_engl 108 6/18/10 4:03:12 PM